Raising Happy Healthy Kids!

10 Quick and Easy Dinner Ideas That Are Healthy Too!

One thing that’s a struggle EVERY SINGLE DAY is what to have for dinner. Have you seen that meme, why do they want dinner every single night? I crack up at that cause it’s so how I feel. Dinner seems to keep on showing up and expecting to be made. Boo! Here are a bunch of quick and easy dinner ideas that are healthy and your kids will love!

Easy healthy recipes for dinner

Eating out or grabbing some hamburger helper seems so easy, but these foods are void of the nutrients you need to function at your best. You and your family need home cooked food and it tastes so much better too! You deserve it. But you also deserve to not have to slave away in the kitchen 24/7 to get it.

Bulk cooking is a great way to avoid spending so much time in the kitchen. You can make a double batch of everything you make and freeze part of it. Then next time, the meal will be easier to put together. That’s what I do for my daycare meals and it helps me stay on top of feeding the kids healthy food.

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Quick dinners for families

Quick dinners that you can throw together in a few minutes are a lifesaver when feeding your family. It’s not impossible to find a few that your kids will love to eat. Here are some of my quick go-to meals.

Homemade Chicken Nuggets and Oven Fries

I have a little girl that calls this meal chicken fries. It’s her favorite. What kid doesn’t love chicken nuggets and fries.

Cut the potatoes into slices. Turn the slices to the side and slice them again to make fries. Sprinkle some oil on top and salt and pepper and toss to coat. Arrange on a baking sheet in a single layer. Toss them in a preheated oven at 400 degrees and bake until golden brown.

Once you have the potatoes in the oven, start on the chicken. Cut the chicken into strips, sprinkle with salt and pepper and roll in flour to coat. Dust off the chicken pieces to remove excess flour. Heat oil in a pan until hot and then sauté the chicken pieces for a few minutes on each side until brown. They cook very fast because they are so small.

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Tacos

Tacos were the first meal I mastered as a young mom and wife. All you need is:

1 tablespoon of oil

1 onion, chopped

1 pound of ground beef, thawed

1 package of taco seasoning (click here to see how to make your own)

Lettuce and tomato, chopped

Shredded cheese

Taco shells or tortillas

Put your oil in a skillet and turn on medium heat. Cook onion until translucent. Add beef and stir and cook until browned. Add taco seasoning and ½ cup water. Cook until water is mostly gone. Set aside. Heat the oven to 300 degrees. If you’re using taco shells, place them on a cookie sheet in the oven for about 5 minutes. If you are using tortillas, sprinkle them with a tiny bit of water and wrap them in foil. Place in the oven for about 8 minutes.

Quesadillas

Quesadillas are a super quick dinner that is also very versatile and a great kid pleaser. I like mine with corn tortillas but you can use flour if you like that better.

Meat if you want it, you can use taco meat or cooked sliced chicken breast. Pork roast is also really good. Sliced up grilled steak would work. Whatever you have on hand. This would be a great use of leftovers.

Veggies that you like. Slices of avocados, onions, and tomatoes are good. You could also use leftover veggies like roasted broccoli or some saluted zucchini. Whatever you have on hand can go in a quesadilla. Be creative.

Heat your skillet and add the butter. Place a tortilla in the skillet and top with slices of cheese. Add your meat and veggies as desired. Place the second tortilla on top. Cook until the bottom tortilla is lightly browned and flip. Cook until the second side is browned. Slice the tortilla across and then across the other way into 4 triangles. Super great family pleaser. I make them with just cheese a lot and the kids go crazy for them.

10 Quick and Easy Dinner Ideas That Are Healthy Too!

Bean burritos

Bean burritos are super cinchy and one of my kid’s all-time favorites.

I just fill a crock pot with a bag of beans and water. Leave it overnight. In the morning, dump it in a colander and rinse the beans and put them back into the crockpot. Then I fill it with water and add a package of taco seasoning. Turn it on high and cook it until dinner.

When it’s time for dinner, just heat your tortillas (I place them in foil with a sprinkle of water in the oven on 300 degrees for about 8 minutes) put in a spoon full of beans and whatever else you like and roll them up. Couldn’t be simpler and kids LOVE these.

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Healthy dinner ideas for kids

Taco soup

This soup is a real kid pleaser. I use the leftover beans from my bean burritos for this soup. If you need to make beans, check how to get them ready in the burrito section above. I cook the beans at night if I need fresh ones. Then in the morning, take your freshly cooked beans or your leftover beans from the fridge.

Tortilla soup

Vegetable beef soup

Vegetable beef soup is a super easy dinner to make for the family. You can use whatever veggies you have around, which I love. It’s inexpensive because you use ground beef. You can also make it with chicken, stew meat or whatever you like. It’s so easy, I make it with my kids all the time. Click here to see how.

Meatballs

Meatballs are a kid pleaser extraordinaire. I make my meatballs in huge batches and freeze them. Then I can just grab some and make some sides and dinner is a breeze. Click here for the recipe.

Pizza

Is there anything that kids love more than pizza? I love making homemade pizza because kids love it but I can hide a ton of veggies in it and they never even notice. Click here to see how I make it. The trick to super yummy pizza is definitely having a great crust. I use Pioneer Woman’s recipe and it’s great every time. Check it out.

I know these super easy quick dinners are going to change your life. If you don’t usually cook, give one or two of these a try. You’ll be amazed at how easy they really are. Simple, good food that you can feel good about feeding your family. What are some of your standbys?